I sent a brief item, thoroughly sourced to NBC and quoting a Defense
Department spokesman as refusing to confirm or deny. Our domestic wire
service had nothing.
* * * * *
Burning Tree hadn't been in the news since the Eisenhower
administration. They might be eager to talk.
I thought about possible sources in New York. There were the usual
crackpot organizations who would comment on anything. They'd be
volunteering their remarks soon enough. There were a handful of
reputable scientists, personal or business friends, who would be
willing to discuss an authentic report on a nonattribution basis. I
decided to wait a bit before calling one of them.
I didn't have to wait long. The bell of the TWX machine rang and
the copy boy turned it on. He typed WW GA PLS as I looked over his
shoulder. A message began to come in. It was a queer one. I read it as
it came in and then, when the boy had acknowledged it and torn it off,
I took it to the desk and studied it. It said:
THE MINISTRY OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS OF MONOLITHIA TODAY TRANSMITTED THE
FOLLOWING NOTE TO THE DEPARTMENT OF STATE OF THE UNITED STATES: IN THE
INTERESTS OF INTERPLANETARY AMITY THE REPRESENTATIVES OF THE MINISTRY
OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS OF MONOLITHIA WHO HAVE THIS DAY EFFECTED A LAND-FALL
ON THE PLANET KNOWN AS EARTH (SOL III) DESIRE TO CONCLUDE A TREATY OF
PEACEFUL INTERCOURSE WITH THE REPRESENTATIVES OF THE UNITED STATES AND
OTHER TERRESTRIAL SUZERAINTIES AND TO THAT USEFUL END SUGGEST A MEETING
OF SUCH REPRESENTATIVES AT A TIME AND PLACE MUTUALLY CONVENIENT.
There were several things I could have done. I could have put out a
flash saying aliens had landed on Earth. It tended to confirm the
NBC report. But my natural skepticism made me pick up the telephone
instead. I got the supervisor who handles TWX messages and asked where
the message purporting to come from the Monolithian Foreign Ministry
had actually been sent from. All the supervisor knew was that it had
been sent by BT-107 in Bethesda, Maryland.
"Would that be the number of the Burning Tree Country Club?" I asked
her, to nail down a coincidence.
"Yes," she said.
Again I was tempted to send a flash, or at least a snap, but decided
to make one more check first. I started to punch out a message to Ian
on the teletype to Washington, but that was too slow. I got him on the
phone instead.
"I just hung up on Burning Tree," Ian said. "I don't know whether
somebody's pulling my leg, but whoever it was claimed to be a spokesman
for the Foreign Ministry of something called Monolithia."
"It all fits, Ian," I said, and I told him about the TWX message. "Has
there been any indication that State has received such a note?"
"I'll check right now. Hold on."
I bit a pencil while I held on and had a look at the domestic wire
service. Nothing there. I wondered what AP and UPI and Reuters were
doing. I was sure they had received similar TWX messages. Still holding
one phone to my ear, I pulled over another and dialed PLaza 7-1111,
AP's number. I put that receiver to my other ear and asked for the
general desk.
"This is Kent of World Wide," I said. "Did you get a message on the TWX
from something calling itself Monolithia?"
"Yes. Did you? I was just going to check with you about it. UPI and
Reuters got it, too. About interplanetary intercourse."
"That's the one. What do you think? Is it a hoax?"
"We don't know. We're checking. Have you put out anything on it yet?"
"No," I told him. "We're trying to get State on it now."
"So're we--"
Ian came in on my other ear: "Sam? State got the note. I'll send a
snap."
"Okay," I said and Ian hung up.
"What?" the AP man asked.
"Nothing," I told him. "Thanks." I hung up both phones and turned
to watch the snap Ian was sending from Washington. AP and UPI have
bulletins. We have snaps. Same thing.
I could tell from the halting way it was being punched out that the
regular Washington operator hadn't come in yet and that Ian was sending
himself.